-By SARAH PARNASS-
Young adults may include a wider variety of vegetables if their food is paired with peanut butter, according to a study presented October 28 at the Obesity Society’s annual meeting.

The study, put out be the United States Department of Agriculture, measured the vegetable intake of Mexican-American children to determine the effects of “peanut butter dipping.”  It was part of a treatment group in schools promoting weight-loss, according to the Peanut Institute.

“We measured what they ate and were excited to see that even those who reported not eating vegetables, who are the most challenging group, ate a greater variety of vegetables with the peanut butter,” Instructor at the Behavioral Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine Dr. Craig Johnston said.

The majority of nuts eaten in the United States are peanuts and peanut butter, which contains over 15 key nutrients, according to the PI.

“Pairing vegetables with peanut butter is an effective, simple strategy for children and adolescents, which helps build positive eating habits and increase vegetable intake,” the PI said.

Those vegetables used in the study included raw carrots, celery and broccoli. When offered without peanut butter, the participants’ diets did not display improvement.

Over 50 Georgetown students came out Friday, Oct. 30 in support of a fellow student who was attacked because of her perceived sexual orientation.

The students said anti-gay harassment is an all-too common occurrence at college parties and on campus at Georgetown.

“This stuff happens all the time,” sophomore Markus Brazill told the Washington Post, “but a lot of us are afraid of reporting it.”

The student was assaulted around 9:10 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. The student, who was wearing a gay rights T-shirt, was walking on Canal Road near the entrance to campus when two men in their mid-20s started yelling anti-gay slurs at her. The suspects grabbed her book bag, threw her to the ground and hit her with the bag before fleeing the scene, according to the Post.

The student sustained minor injuries in the incident but did not seek medical attention. Campus and D.C. police are still trying to find the suspects. The girl has declined to speak to D.C. police for the investigation.

There was a major flood in Leonard Hall around 12:20 p.m. today.

Various floors were affected and Housing and Dining, Facilities Management, Aramark and Public Safety responded to the scene. Housing and Dining informed students via fliers taped to bathroom doors and elevators that the water was turned off in order to repair the problem. Water service has now been restored.

Facilities Management also shut down the fire alarm system in Leonard as part of the repairs and continuous fire walks will be conducted until the system is back up, according to a source familiar with the situation.The walks will be to ensure that there is no fire in the building. The Eagle will have more as this develops.

D.C. Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee will be speaking at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow in Mary Graydon Center to kick off the Heads Up “College to Kids Summit.”

The summit seeks to foster a “culture of college attendance throughout the District of Columbia” by using D.C. college students to promote higher achievement among DCPS school children, according to Heads Up.

Rhee is moving into her third year as chancellor of DCPS and just presided over the controversial dismissals of over 200 teachers. She has garnered national attention through her efforts to reform the D.C. school system through merit bases pay for teachers.

Here are the results from the fall elections, as reported by the Student Government Board of Elections:

CAS Senator (226 votes cast)
Amanda Silva (84.0%)
Victoria Glynn (1.77%)

Class of 2010 Senator (183 votes cast)
Eric Coletta (25.6%)
Steven Dalton (26.7%)
John Marzabadi (9.29%)
Two pending write-in acceptances

Class of 2011 Senator (264 votes cast)
Jared Alves (35.9%)
Joseph Muscarella (25%)
Jeremiah Headen (11.74%)
Edward Levandoski (4.55%)
Needs one appointment

Class of 2012 Senator (1386 votes cast)
Eric Lynch (18.3%)
Amanda Merkwae (13.2%)
Elijah Mercer (20%)
Seth Rosenstein (10.7%)
Forrest Young (13.3%)

Class of 2013 Senator (2088 votes cast)
Brett Atanasio (5.89%)
Avi Bublick (7.85%)
Hannah Murphy (7.61%)
Megan Shea (5.98%)
One pending acceptance

Kogod Senator
One pending acceptance
Senator At Large (3241 votes cast)
Mark Bittner (12.6%)
Jenny Kim (12.5%)
Spencer Siegel (9.78%)
Naomi Thomas (12.3%)

SIS Senator (311 votes cast)
Grant Livingston (55.3%)

SOC Senator (126 votes cast)
Erika Johnson (95.2%)

SPA Senator (258 votes cast)
Eric Reath (91.4%)

SCHOOL COUNCILS:

CAS Secretary
Needs to be appointed

CAS Treasuer (200 votes cast)
Zhefu Gu (96%)

CAS Vice President (214 votes cast)
Zachary Lancet (82.2%)

Class of 2010 Secretary
Pending write-in acceptance

Class of 2010 Treasurer
Pending write-in acceptance

Class of 2010 Vice President
Pending write-in acceptance

Class of 2011 Secretary
Pending write-in acceptance

Class of 2013 President (468 votes cast)
Jose Morales (73.9%)

Class of 2013 Secretary (403 votes cast)
Kim Lindgren (56.5%)

Class of 2013 Treasurer (406 votes cast)
Brandon Besash (93.3%)

Class of 2013 Vice President (459 votes cast)
Jack Acland (47.2%)

SOC Secretary
Pending write-in acceptance

SOC Treasurer
Needs to be appointed

SOC Vice President
Pending write-in acceptance

SPA Secretary
Pending write-in acceptance

SPA Treasurer (74 votes cast)
Todd Carney (14.86%)

On-campus drug violations resulting in judicial referrals dropped sharply in 2008, according to the Department of Public Safety’s 2009 Annual Security Report, released Tuesday evening.

In 2007, 46 drug abuse-related judicial referrals were issued on AU’s main campus by Public Safety. Last year, there were only five such referrals.

Burglaries reported to the department rose by 38.7 percent. There were 43 total on-campus robberies reported last year, compared to 19 the year before.

Alcohol violations reported dropped 6.8 percent in that same period, from 280 in 2007 to 244 in 2008.

Two drug-related arrests were also made on-campus last year, according to the report.

More on this report coming in Thursday’s edition of The Eagle!

Meghan McCain challenged AU students Wednesday night to join her in questioning what it means to be a Democrat or a Republican.

The daughter of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told a full house in the Mary Graydon University Club that Republicans need to welcome fresh ideas and reject the belief that there is a set mold every member of the party must fit into.

“I’m saying, make room for me and evolve with the times,” she said. “I’m asking the Republican Party to stop being so stubborn and closed minded.”

McCain identified herself as a “progressive Republican,” a term she said she had to come up with all by herself. She defines it as being a Republican who leans toward the left on social issues such as gay marriage, which she firmly supports.

“I know there are lots of us around,” she said. “There are probably some of them in this room. People who love the rep party with all their heart but feel some of its noblest ideals have gotten lost in all the noise and name calling.”

After growing up in a house with elephant wallpaper in the bathroom and a U.S. senator cooking burgers on the grill outside, people often think McCain has been a Republican since birth, she said. However, she originally registered as an Independent and voted for John Kerry, D-Mass., in 2004.What secured her identity as a Republican was traveling on the campaign trail with her father after graduating college in 2007.

“All of a sudden I realized I loved politics and the Republican party more than I could have ever imagined,” McCain said.

McCain is a self-described straight, Christian, pro-life, Republican who believes in gay marriage, which has opened her up to the accusation by critics that she is not Republican enough. She is also a woman, which has opened her up to accusations that her “ass is too fat” and her hair “is too blonde,” she said.

McCain said she fights back against the critics who personally attack her by leading through example.

“Politics doesn’t have to be disturbing and dirty,” she said.

At the end of the speech, McCain opened up a question and answer session.

Alex Margolis, a junior in the School of Public Affairs, asked the first question.

“I think you’re beautiful,” he said, continuing to ask her out for coffee, dinner or drinks.

McCain’s response? “Um…sure, why not.”

A member of the Women and Politics Institute later challenged this interaction, asking McCain if it was difficult to be constantly judged on superficial attributes. McCain answered that she has gotten used to being treated in that manner.

“I think it’s sad,” she said. “I do. And I don’t think it’s my fault.”

In answer to a question about the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy,” McCain said she thinks the policy is archaic and decreases national security by rejecting qualified individuals on the basis of sexual orientation.

Another AU student asked McCain how she reconciles being a gay marriage supporter with having the last name of McCain.

“If my last name was Hitler…” he said, and did not finish the sentence.

“I don’t reconcile everything,” McCain answered. “I live my life….I’m just trying to make a difference with what I’ve been given.”

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday on the Facebook blog that the social networking Web site had acquired 300 million users worldwide. That number equals almost the entire population of the United States and is over the population of Indonesia, the country with the fifth-largest population in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook.

“We’re just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone,” said Zuckerberg in his blog.

People 35 years old and older constitute the demographic that is joining Facebook at the fastest rate, according to Facebook’s statistics Web site.

The Network for American currently includes 20,088 people, according to Facebook. That is almost twice the population of the number of AU faculty, undergraduate, graduate, law and nondegree/abroad students combined in the fall semester of 2008, according to the AU Web site.

Facebook also has a very large international base with 70 percent of its users from outside the U.S., according to the statistics Web site. In addition, 65 translations of the Web site are available on Facebook.

The ratio of Facebook users to engineers “makes it so that every engineer here is responsible for more than one million users,” according to Zuckerberg’s blog. “It’s hard to have an impact like that anywhere else.”

Former AU basketball star Kermit Washington finished his three-day hunger strike on September 14. Washington, who resided in an RV on the Quad, started the hunger strike to raise money for his organization, Project Contact Africa, according to AU’s Web site.

Through Project Contact Africa, Washington will send money and services to Nairobi, Kenya. This is the second time Washington has come to AU to fast. Last year Washington fasted for five days and dropped almost 20 pounds. Washington rose over $25,000 last year, and he hopes to have raised at least $30,000 this year.

Washington is one of the best athletes in AU’s history. In his senior year he averaged an incredible 21 points and 21 rebounds per game, according to the AU website. Washington followed up his stellar college basketball career with eight years in the National Basketball Association.

AU will use about $73,000 for security upgrades at Bender Library, thanks to a grant by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a news story on the AU Web site. Public Safety intends to use the grant to reduce the amount of laptops thefts in the library.

Last year alone over 34 laptops were stolen and, at one time, there were two or three instances of theft a week, according to the AU web site. Public Safety is working with Bender Library to implement new safety measures such as security cameras installed at the entrance and exits of each floor as well as in highly trafficked areas.

Michael McNair, the director of AU Public Safety, told AU that he hopes the new safety measures will drastically reduce the amount of thefts in Bender Library.

To read more about Bender Library’s updated safety visitthe AU Web site.

The Undergraduate Senate will not be able to request and review the applications of all nominees for SG positions as was required in a proposed oversight bill. The Senate failed Tuesday night to override President Andy MacCracken’s veto on the bill by one-third of the vote.

In the fifth special session in the past two weeks, 11 senators voted to override the veto, six voted to not override the veto and one senator abstained. Twelve senators were needed to override the president’s veto.

MacCracken expressed concerns that the language was too ambiguous, that the scope of the bill was too narrow and that the executive branch was not involved in the planning of the bill.

The bill was originally approved Aug. 30 by a 10-2 vote, and then vetoed by MacCracken Sept. 4.

“I don’t understand why the Senate has to always be holding hands with the president of the SG,” said Sen. Steve Dalton, who authored the bill.

He emphasized the necessity of passing the bill immediately since the Senate will soon hear nominees for the AUTO Commissioner and SG Comptroller positions. MacCracken said nominees would not be interviewed for two weeks, and the Senate has time to draw up new legislation by then.

He said he would issue an executive order by Friday asking nominees up for confirmation by the Senate to submit relevant information to the body prior to the hearings.

YouTube is considering a deal with Hollywood Studios that would allow the Web site to rent newly released movies online, according to the Associated Press.

The business plan would follow the similar models of iTunes, Amazon.com Inc. and Cinemanow.com, which charge between $1.99 and $3.99 per rental. Renters are allowed to keep each movie for 24 hours, according to the AP.

Negotiations are still in the early phases, and whether YouTube and Hollywood Studios enter into a final deal will depend on costs and an agreed-upon release date, according to the AP.

Since the Hollywood Video in Tenleytown closed in 2007, AU students have limited access to movie rental stores, The Eagle previously reported.

Students can rent various popular movies for free in the Bender Library. Each movie is due back two days after its rental.

For more information about YouTube movie rentals, visit original AP article.

Lawyers, judges and professors from across the globe are visiting AU’s Washington College of Law this year for a U.S. State Department-sponsored fellowship program.

Hubert H. Humphrey fellows have been coming to WCL since 1980, according to the AU Web site. Through this program, practitioners of foreign legal systems learn about international law and the American legal system.

All united under a firm belief in the value of the rule of law in efforts to promote human rights, this year’s fellows come from Africa, South America, and Asia.  They will learn about specific topics such as anticorruption, clients’ and victims’ rights, judicial reform and modernization and globalization of court systems.

“For each of them, it’s part of a quest to improve the legal systems of countries that often face significant challenges,” according to the article by Sally Acharya.

The 2009—2010 Humphrey Fellows are Susana Ramos, Agustin Flah, Abudureheman Kadeer, Ahmet Imirzalioglu, Tania Tait, Alexandre Sankievicz, Elena Sapozhnikova, Mariah Singh, Phetdala Phoumalavong, and Brigitte Mensah.

The Investigative Reporting Workshop at AU is one of four non-profit investigative journalism groups which has work distributed across the country, The New York Times reported June 13.

Since July 1, the Associated Press has been dispensing material from the Center for Public Integrity, the Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica to the 1,500 papers in the United States that are members of the AP. The newspapers are free to publish the distributed material, which helps them fill gaps in their publications left by shrinking resources and helps the four non-profits expand their audiences.

For now, the arrangement is a test-run that will run for six months. If successful, it may later include other investigative journalism non-profits. The AP may also expand the program to serve news outlets such as broadcast and Internet sites that are not members of the news network.

To read the Time’s coverage of the agreement, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/business/media/13press.html?_r=1&ref=business.

DAVE STONE / EAGLE FILE PHOTO

Kogod School of Business was ranked highly in a variety of publications this year, but for several different criteria.

Kogod ranked 57th in undergraduate business programs in the 2010 edition of the U.S. News and World Report. The school has also improved its rankings in BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal and other publications, according to Kogod’s Web site.

While Kogod ranked higher than last year in most of the publications, each magazine bases its list of the best business programs on different criteria.

U.S. News bases its rankings on surveys with deans and senior faculty of undergraduate business programs. Kogod has jumped 26 places from its spot at No. 83 in 2008.

The program was ranked 28th in BusinessWeek’s “Best Undergraduate Business Schools.” The publication surveys students to compile its list.

In comparison, the Wall Street Journal ranked Kogod 36 in master’s business programs by speaking with recruiters who hired Kogod graduates. And Forbes ranked Kogod on its list of best MBA programs by calculating the return on investment of former students.

To read the full article about Kogod’s ascent, visit http://www.american.edu/kogod/news/detail.cfm?newsID=72591944-ECBA-831D-1A262C728479131E.